I cannot agree more with the author. I attended Craig Barret's keynote and kept thinking what a waste of my time and money! I hope next time intel keeps all sessions that don't matter much to developers towards the end of IDF.

Even Pat Gelsinger's talk was a bit of a let down. There were too many guest appearances and I think he just could not keep the message focused. The stage was over crowded with gadgets. It seemed more like Carly Fiorina's wall of products presentation, with guests. Perhaps intel can learn from Apple here.

In the technical sessions, there was too much focus on power engineering, not directly relevant to most of the developers. Larrabee talk was entertaining but was simply a rehash of the information already there. The tone was completely self congratulatory.

The one tech talk that really shined and I think returned my money's worth is the session on Nehalem by Ronak Singhal and Steve Gunther.

Either I'm missing something, or a mere 100 thousand is a drop in a bucket when it comes to funding educational and environmental solutions.
Jack it up to a million bucks - especially given the value of the Benjamins around now - and then you start actually helping.
400 thousand total is just feel-good-about-myself money. Still, better to give out peanuts than nothing at all.

"Barrett revealed that his actual personal physician was based in India"

U r a person with white skin - most of the Indians r worshipers of that particular skin type. On top of that u r a famous person, so ur physician must be always in an "attention" mode, serving u. U r lucky, Mr Barrett.

But ask any commoner in India - how they r treated. I assure u, u will get an orthogonal answer. 

U need to praise the 3rd world for so many business/ambassador reasons - we understand that. But please dont exhibit all those glossy pix, to the common American people, which do not carry even a grain of truth.

What an irony - just today I read this in CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/08/14/medical.care.india/index.html

I vote wonk. Guy has little technical sense and even less business savvy. He is good at playing the corporate politics game though.

Hay barrets right we need tech to go forward. We can't keep using wars to control populations. AS Europe has done since written history began . 

He is also right about teachers . Flunkies in there field so they decide to teach . NOT good, 

Health care in the US is a joke. Way to Many bad doctors and needless operations with half the countries population On drugs given out by the biggest drug deales in the USA. DOCTORS!

Than there is the elderly. Who for almost there entire life never made $2000 a month. Single person. 
A nursing home today is about $5000 a month. WHO pays . Not these old people. They just lose whatever it was they retired with and thats not a lot. Nursing hpmes take there homes and empty the bank books. In my town fully half the people involved in nursing home care are druggers. So try a little harder next time to pretend there is no problem or make light of it.